VIDEO: Yorkshireman Carlos Carvalhal comes armed with Sheffield Wednesday stats that prove he’s up there with the best and a sense of ‘tha’ll be reyt’

Sheffield Wednesday head coach Carlos Carvalhal brought the laughs and the stats to his press conference yesterday, ahead of the weekend clash with Norwich City.

A fairly passable impression of a Yorkshireman tail-ended a point the Portuguese was making about how far he and his team have come in the 20 months since the 51 year-old’s arrival in Sheffield.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal

Questions centred around the difference between the dynamic, attacking style of play of last season, which drove Wednesday into the Play-Off Final compared to this year’s more conservative approach, prompted Carvalhal to point out just how well he has done since taking charge.

Statistically, he is the best Wednesday boss since Vic Buckingham left in 1964 and only Buckingham (47.01%) and Harry Catterick (55.08%) can better Carvalhal’s win percentage (46.15%) in the near 150-year history of the club.

So, armed with those stats, it’s perhaps understandable that Carvalhal wonders where the ‘virus of negativity’ as he puts it, is coming from.

“I am the same coach (as last season),” he said.

A smiling Carlos Carvalhal

“I talk with my players, we are here almost two seasons and someone gave me the information that we have the best rating in the past 50 years, I think we are third best rating, in history, 150 years.

“That is amazing and makes me and my players and staff very, very proud because that is not something easy to achieve.”

Carvalhal admits there has been a change in the atmosphere around the club, but recognises that this is due to the strides the team made last season.

And he points out that there are other teams in the Championship this time around who are experiencing the same effects of an out-of-the-blue promotion charge, similar to the Owls in the previous campaign.

“Between the lines, there are a lot of things, we create expectations last season, last season everyone was positive about everything last season without the expectations,” he added.

“It’s happening this season with Huddersfield, it’s happening this season with Leeds, with Reading, everything is positive because they don’t have too many expectations.

“When you create expectations the people think we are the best team in the world and they get frustrated and they create this kind of virus between people.

“Not just at Sheffield Wednesday but in general, they start looking at everything is negative, the team, the players, the coach, the chairman, the fans, the club but at the end we are the third best rated in 150 years of Sheffield Wednesday.